A bio-economic model to improve profitability in a large national beef cattle population

• Javier López-Paredes ^[1] ; Jose-Antonio Jiménez-Montero ^[4] ; María-Ángeles Pérez-Cabal ^[2] ; Oscar González-Recio ^[3] ; Rafael Alenda ^[1]
  1. [1] Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

     Universidad Politécnica de Madrid

     Madrid, España

     
  2. [2] Universidad Complutense de Madrid

     Universidad Complutense de Madrid

     Madrid, España

     
  3. [3] Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria

     Instituto Nacional de Investigación y Tecnología Agraria y Alimentaria

     Madrid, España

     
  4. [4] CONAFE, Spanish Holstein Association, España

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• Localización: Spanish journal of agricultural research, ISSN-e 2171-9292, ISSN 1695-971X, Vol. 15, Nº. 3, 2017
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • A bio-economic model was developed for estimating economic values for use in improving profitability in a large national beef cattle population from birth to slaughter. Results were divided into fattening costs, production costs and income. Economic values were derived for 17 traits for two regions, mature weight (- 0.43 € and - 0.38 €/+1 kg of live weight), age at first calving (- 0.13 € and - 0.11 €/+1d), calving interval (-1.06 € and -1.02 €/+1d), age at last calving (0.03 € and 0.03 €/+1d), mortality 0-48 h (-5.86 € and -5.63 €/1% calves per cow and year), pre-weaning mortality (-5.96 € and -5.73 €/+1% calves per cow and year), fattening mortality (-8.23 € and -7.88 €/+1% calves per cow and year), adult mortality (-8.92 € and -7.34 €/+1% adult cows per cow and year), pre-weaning average daily gain (2.56 € and 2.84 €/+10g/d), fattening young animals average daily gain (2.65 € and 3.00 €/+10g/d), culled cow in fattening average daily gain (0.25 € and 0.16 €/+10g/d), culled cow dressing carcass percentage (3.09 € and 2.42 €/+1%), culled cow price (4.59 € and 3.59 €/+0.06 €/kg), carcass conformation score (16.39 € and 15.3 €/+1 SEUROP class), dressing carcass rate of calf (18.22 € and 18.23 €/+1%), carcass growth (9.00 € and 10.09 €/+10g of carcass weight/d) and age at slaughter (0.27 € and 0.44 €/+1d). Two sample herds were used to show the economic impact of calving interval and age at first calving shortening in the profit per slaughtered young animal, which was 178 € and 111 € for Herds A and B, respectively. The economic values of functional traits were reduced and production traits were enhanced when fertility traits were improved. The model could be applied in a Spanish national program.